Brothers Photo Re-creation Goes Viral; Over 1.5 Million Views

Tyrol and Talon Chamberlain recreate a childhood photo on the left with the help of Tyrol’s girlfriend, ZulieBlair, and their two sisters. See the right side for the hilarious results.

A Fortuna family’s re-creation of a childhood photo is romping through the internet collecting comments and views like an ice cream truck collects kids. As of this writing, the photo has over 1.5 million views!

According to Talon Chamberlain, the brother sitting in front of both images above, “It started a few months ago. We were having a conversation about photo re-creations and my brother’s girlfriend Zulie pointed to a picture in our mom’s living room and said, ‘You guys should re-create this one.'”

Talon explained they thought the humor of the photo would be increased by the haircut he had in the image taken when he and his brother were small. “When I was a little kid, I had blond hair and a bowl cut. We thought it was a pretty funny picture to recreate as adults.”

To add to the twist, they couldn’t shave their beards. “Me, my brother and another guy had a bet,” he explained. “Whoever shaves their beard off before this coming Friday has to wear a neck brace for two weeks.”

Tyrol, the brother kneeling in the back of the images, said they thought the beards added to the humor anyway. “We thought it would show us as grown men and it would be funnier.”

The re-creation became a family project, according to Talon. “One sister is a hairstylist and cut my hair in a bowl cut and another sister grabbed the chair from a boutique and brought it to the house,” he told us.

His brother’s girlfriend, Zulie Blair, a professional photographer, volunteered to take the photos.

“We started by buying the overalls,” Talon said. But by the time the crew was finished, they had transformed a room of his mother’s house.

Blair joked that the brothers’ mom wasn’t thrilled with the transformation at first. “We grabbed her bright makeup lights,” she said, “and moved furniture….There was like five people involved in posing [the brothers] and getting the details right.” (Notice the band-aid on Tyrol’s heel!)

Tyrol said his mom didn’t even like the re-creation at first. But, he said, once the image “blew up” on Reddit, “she thought it was hilarious.”

Everyone was surprised at how popular the re-creation became. “I never in a million years thought that on Reddit it would have one and a half million views. I knew it would be something for my friends and family to laugh at but not the whole world,” Talon said.

Blair is a little worried that her most famous photo is so “cheesy.” However, although Blair is a full-time college student, she also takes various kinds of images for sale. “I do a lot of different photography–maternity couples and I have some weddings this summer.” Ironically, considering her famous photo was done with makeup lights, most of her photos involve natural light. “I’m not a big fan of indoor photos,” she explained.

Want to re-create a childhood photo? Blair could help. Or she could create one of her natural light images for you. Here are some examples.

Or see more of her work at Zulie Blair Photography on Facebook or write her at zulieblair@gmail.com.

Now, we have one question for you. Tyrol explained that many of their comments on Reddit encouraged the two brothers to repeat the photo when they’ve shaved. “Everyone seems to want this one done again without the beards.”

What do you think? Better with the beards or without?

We cast the first vote for the photo with the beards. As Talon said on Reddit, “We didn’t shave in the first photo.”

But tell us what you think, should they re-create the photo without the beards and, if they do, will it be as big of a hit on the internet?

Hi Kym, it’s Debbie, Tyrol and Talon’s mom! Just wanted to give you a little behind the scenes info. We had three family birthdays and Easter to celebrate that evening. It was late afternoon when they decided to do this. So, while I’m running around trying to get everything ready, I’ve got hair cutting going on in the middle of my kitchen with hair flying everywhere, two little grandkids underfoot and everyone completely rearranging and moving everything out of my living room to create a photo studio! It was totally chaotic, crazy and fun, although a little stressful I must admit… So glad that it makes everyone happy, it was well worth the effort!!

Jeez, when I use people’s photos, being a photographer, I know how much work can go into them. Generally, I don’t pay for them because I’m not making much money on this site. But I feel it is only fair to let folks know the services the photographer provides. Often I link to the person’s website but in this case as I anticipated getting quite a chunk of visitors from the post (and I did) I thought it reasonable to show that the photographer generally did entirely different work. Why do you object to a college student getting a little boost with their business when they provided entertainment for millions of viewers?

Love the pic… Go Zulie…. I was really amazed at how far the comments got before someone like”’ REPLY”” would pipe in and tryin ruin the fun….. OY VEY!……..FAME IS A FICKLE CARD ZULIE…….Thanks for the laughs! Still chuckling thinking of the pics my brothers and i could re-create!……

I love it and. Debbie I can see your house while preparing. Lol you three are so funny and it’s so uplifting o see some good old fashioned fun. Love you all and a ply for Zuli, she’s an amazing photographer. She did maternity shoots and first 24 hours for my daughter and the photos were stunning. She’s got a unique voice alert and itsGod given

People are just jelouse they can’t create the time place or photos to gain the attention they so NEED, when they see all the joy one photo created, the only thing that comes to a failed persons mind is to put down and belittle the winners…
Here’s to all the people winning in this world👊🏽